Customers enjoy an outdoor lunch at Terra Ristorante Italiano, left, on Greenwich Avenue, which is just south of Tiffany's which is located at 140 Greenwich Avenue, Tuesday, May 4, 2010.
Photo: Bob Luckey

The 4th Congressional District streches from the city of Bridgeport, where there is much poverty, all the way down to Greenwich, one of the wealthiest cities in the state. Here is a view of a grocery store along Main Street in Bridgeport, Conn. on Tuesday May 04, 2010.
Photo: Christian Abraham

The 4th Congressional District streches from the city of Bridgeport, where there is much poverty, all the way down to Greenwich, which has much of the state's wealth. Here is a view along Main Street in Bridgeport, Conn. on Tuesday May 04, 2010.
Photo: Christian Abraham

The 4th Congressional District streches from the city of Bridgeport, where there is much poverty, all the way down to Greenwich, one of the wealthiest cities in the state. Here is a view of a grocery store along Main Street in Bridgeport, Conn. on Tuesday May 04, 2010.
Photo: Christian Abraham

The 4th Congressional District streches from the city of Bridgeport, where there is much poverty, all the way down to Greenwich, one of the wealthiest cities in the state. Here, Osaretin Chavez, owner of Osadia Grocery Store points out a store where Mosa Osemobor can wire some money along Main Street in Bridgeport, Conn. on Tuesday May 04, 2010.
Photo: Christian Abraham

The 4th Congressional District streches from the city of Bridgeport, where there is much poverty, all the way down to Greenwich, one of the wealthiest cities in the state. Here, a woman pushes a stoller along Main Street in Bridgeport, Conn. on Tuesday May 04, 2010.
Photo: Christian Abraham

Carlo Mosconi waits at a Fairfield Avenue bus stop, a few blocks from his Bridgeport apartment. The bus will take him to Norwalk to work at one of his two part-time jobs. A high school dropout with his GED, the 26-year-old figures that if he's lucky, he'll earn about $25,000 this year. He's never voted in an election; he's not even registered.

In the next town over, Fairfield, live Tom and Betsy Browne. She's Fairfield's town clerk; he's the town's assessor. Between the two of them, their income this year will be a little more than $205,000. Homeowners and college graduates, they can always be counted on to cast a vote when Election Day rolls around.

There's seemingly little in common between Mosconi and the Brownes, but there is something they share: They're members of the state's 4th Congressional District.

To say the district is a study in contrasts is an understatement.

In Greenwich can be found multimillionaires and titans of industry, families whose wealth has been passed down through generations and people who can trace their lineage back to the Mayflower. A Cape Cod-style house there is assessed at $1.85 million and has four bedrooms.

In Bridgeport can be found day laborers and recent immigrants, families struggling just to make it to their next paycheck with the electricity still on. Here, a Cape has two bedrooms and an assessment of $171,970.

On the whole, the district is demographically similar to the average U.S. congressional district in terms of race and ethnicity, though its $80,284 median family income is well above the $50,046 national median.

But that obscures the disparity among the various chunks of the district -- say, Greenwich and Bridgeport.

"In several areas, the district has changed, most notably the heterogeneity," said Rose, chairman of the university's government and politics department. In 1940, 3 percent of the 4th Congressional District was nonwhite; now, that figure is 20 percent, he said. "From 3 to 20 percent, that's a big difference."

Those demographic changes are reshaping the politics of the district, too.

"Even some of these dyed-in-the-wool Republican strongholds in some towns have become more of a two-party community," Rose said. "The district itself, though it's kind of a snail's pace, has moved more away from a Republican Party affiliation, and not just in urban areas, but in suburban towns."

Those changes, Rose said, benefit Democrats overall, "just by virtue of what areas of the population are growing: Latino and African-American." However, he said, the voter turnout among those two groups is generally not that high, particularly among Latinos.

"Even though the demographic shifts do favor the Democrats, I still would say the nature of the Republican nominees certainly still can appeal to a sizable portion of the district," Rose said.

In fact, since World War II, he said, only three Democrats from the district have been elected to go to Washington: Don Irwin, of Norwalk; current U.S. Rep. Jim Himes; and LeRoy Downs, from South Norwalk, who served from 1941 to 1943.

"If we were nominating people like Newt Gingrich, forget it, he would never win," Rose said, but the GOP candidates in the 4th tend to be -- like Chris Shays, Lowell Weicker and Stewart McKinney -- fiscally conservative but socially moderate. "I think the changes do favor Democrats, but given the nature of the Republicans we nominate in this district, it doesn't preclude Republicans."

Even the candidates represent part of the district's diversity. There's incumbent Himes, a Harvard grad who lives in Cos Cob. On the Republican side, there's Rick Torres, who lives in Bridgeport's Black Rock section, grew up in Section 8 housing and attended college on a scholarship. Rob Merkle grew up in Florida, moved to New Canaan after graduating from the University of Notre Dame and now lives in Norwalk. Easton First Selectman Tom Herrmann grew up in Stamford and attended public schools there. Will Gregory was raised in New Canaan and graduated from the The Gunnery before going to college at Gettysburg College and Oxford University.

Delivering their messages to such a diverse population falls to the candidates' campaigns.

"The more affluent areas will get a lot of their information from television, your paper and The New York Times," said Chris Healy, chairman of the Republican State Central Committee. "In the more populated areas, where there are pockets of poverty, our candidates -- and (the late U.S. Rep. Stewart McKinney) did this quite well -- they go to inner cities and churches and offer what we're trying to do and not be afraid of what we stand for."

Communicating a message is all predicated, Healy said, on having an audience open to listening, then figuring out from a tactical point of view how to put it out there so people will listen.

"It's definitely an art form," he said.

"I think certainly you use different metaphors or different words to convey the same underlying message," Healy said.

Healy's counterpart across the aisle, Nancy DiNardo, said she isn't so sure these days that candidates should or do alter their message based on their audience.

"At one time, that may have been true." she said. "But I think today, with instant news and instant messaging, blogs and Twitter, you can't do that. You can't get away with doing that, and you won't see that, at least on the Democratic side."

DiNardo said she does agree with the thinking that a moderate tends to do better in this type of district.

"I think where you get the push back is from the two extremes," she said.